Screenwriter Hired For G.I. Joe Sequel

There were a lot of silly movies to come out last summer, from the excellent ones-- Star Trek, Drag Me to Hell-- to the truly awful ones-- Wolverine, Transformers 2. The forgotten stepchild among them all, though, seems to be G.I. Joe, a movie that was widely forgiven for its ridiculousness among fanboy critics (including Josh) and actually made a fair bit of money, but seemed to have disappeared by September as if it had never happened.

Still, a profit is a profit, and Collider has learned that Paramount has most definitely greenlit the sequel, and a screenwriter has already been hired. No word on who that screenwriter will be, or whether Stephen Sommers will be back to direct, but given the incessant rumors about behind-the-scenes drama, at least some of which has to be true, I wouldn't be surprised to see Sommers bail in favor of something bigger. After all, he stepped away from the Mummy franchise before the third film, and those movies didn't inspire him to lash out publicly against critics who dared doubt him.

I feel completely indifferent on the matter of a G.I. Joe sequel, given that I couldn't even be bothered to see it when it came out. If it was as entertaining as everyone claimed, then good-- not every summer blockbuster can be Star Trek, and we all need something to do in August. If the screenwriter Paramount has hired is half-decent, we might even be able to look forward to a sequel improving on the original.